Powerupp is bringing #TheNakedTruth to London!

Mar 20, 2018 · Want to grow your company? Ricardo Paiágua, co-founder of Powerupp is coming to London to bare it all!

Is it really possible for a startup to be profitable enough in two years to fund another?

According to Ricardo Paiágua, co-founder of both uppOut and Powerupp, it is. But only if you have the right mindset:

"It is possible mostly because we’re building startups that are managed the old-fashioned way. Our
leader, someone we hold very dear, taught us to bring creativity to every project, but never to forget the
‘numbers’. Truth is, like any other company’s story, ours will only be as successful and lasting as those
numbers allow.

uppOut’s Imagineer adds that this is the result of two strenuous and difficult years. He goes on to say
that "the sexy world of startups is not easy at all. It’s an unending, hard, uphill battle in which we have
to go all in and push aside our personal lives, loved ones and any sort of comfort."

At the end of the day, it is worth it. Ricardo doesn’t think twice when he looks back on everything
uppOut achieved in so little time, he would do it all again. "We accomplished renowned projects and
brands and I have no doubt it all comes down to the values we try to imbue our teams with: attitude,
difference, integrity and work rate. The latter makes all the difference. We’re not smarter or luckier than
anyone else. We simply work longer and harder than anyone else. We wouldn’t be here if we didn’t."

After a remarkable launch year turning profits, 2017 went even better. The second year of life for
uppOut, saw the company bring in about a million euros in revenue and turn even larger profits. And, as
Ricardo always says: "There are three core elements for the success of any company: sales, people and
money in the bank. That’s why we don’t relate to startups that look for investment. We want to try, fail,
suffer and learn first. We want to write our own story, with our own words and hands."

What about Powerupp? What is it and what’s it doing in London?

Powerupp is an App that aims to overthrow LinkedIn as the go-to professional social network. This is
how the founder of both startups puts it bold and briefly, adding that "LinkedIn is a vanity fair. User’s
profiles are trivialized because everyone is great at everything. Everyone endorses everyone on every
skill with no real thought besides personal gain. I believe each one of can only master 3 skills. And that’s
the vision that brought Powerupp to life."

After two years of carrying a toilet and a poop costume around Lisbon’s Web Summit, the creative
minds at uppOut are not new to the nature of guerrilla marketing. Now, it is time to wear the colors of
Powerupp and celebrate its launch in London in a "loud", visual and (literally) stripped down mood.

And how will they do it? "Well, it was actually a very quick and improvised idea… We are sending João
and Samuel to London and they’ll be walking around promoting the App while… naked. Hence #TheNakedTruth"

#TheNakedTruth is the concept or trigger that knits together the boldness of the company and the
message behind it: powerupp arrived to expose the naked truth of each person in the job market.
Ricardo thinks that "talent is such an overused word on the recruitment world and we have no open and
trustworthy platform to identify it. What we have here is an App with an algorithm and features that
favor good judgement and the skills of each user."

This is how Powerupp guarantees that each person’s skills, traits and values are actually validated by their network of colleagues and partners. Ricardo believes "Endorsement for endorsement or like for
like doesn’t work here, because our system is based on a meticulous algorithm of ponderation and
blindness."

In a world of brands and companies, Powerupp wants to be a turning point. This is the story of an App
that wants to bring people to the foreground. This is a story of people as the real difference makers. The
same people that build and bring life to those brands.